What they're saying …

Hannibal Courier-Post, on rising tuition rates:

Help may be on the way for those shouldering rising college tuition rates.

The House recently gave strong support to a proposal that would cap single-year tuition increases to the price of inflation at publicly funded, four-year institutions in the state.

Under the proposal, any "state four-year higher education institution" would be prohibited from raising tuition and fees above inflation. Community colleges and private schools would not be covered by this bill.

This proposal, offered as an amendment to a larger bill that would change the way the state funds higher education, was prompted by cries for relief from the public following sizable tuition increases in recent years.

House Speaker Pro Tem Carl Bearden complained that universities have made no significant attempts to be more efficient, opting instead to continue increasing tuition to preserve the status quo.

Democrats and a handful of Republicans argued that setting tuition rates is best done by university presidents and governing bodies, rather than the Legislature. It also was noted that the state Coordinating Board for Higher Education is already equipped to address tuition issues.

We walk a delicate line here. Hamstring our state's higher education institutions financially and the quality of education will decline. Allow tuition increases to continue unchecked and the cost of attending one of our state universities will simply be unaffordable for many more Missourians.

Until greater restraint is shown by the university system, a financial bridle, such as a cap on single-year tuition increases, is appropriate.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, on hand fishing:

Until last year, it was illegal to leap into a slow-moving Missouri stream and rassle bottom-feeders into submission.

But liberty is a wonderful thing, and catfish are ugly. So Missouri lawmakers changed the law to allow what they called an "experimental" hand-fishing season. We'd always thought experiments required Pyrex beakers and Bunsen burners, but what do we know? In our part of the state we say "Missouree."

In any case, the Senate this week approved a new bill to expand both the season for "noodling" to include June and July, and the type of fish noodlers can catch. Under the bill, carp as well as catfish are fair game.

To those of us clinging to the urban fringes of this great state, the need to expand noodling season -- or, for that matter, to leap into slow-moving streams and wrestle a 75-pound catfish -- wasn't immediately obvious.

Still, we're generally in favor of anything that gets more people to enjoy the great outdoors. The fact that noodling is something families can enjoy together gives us even more to like.

The bill now moves to the House, where it's sure to get some well-deserved attention. We wish noodlers everywhere good luck. Their sport will probably never win the kind of rapturous following that bass fishing or fly fishing enjoy. But it's a heck of a lot safer than fishing with dynamite.

For the fish, that is.